MESH help: how to alter after the fact...

[Anonymous]

I made a pretty complex mesh for a residence from a DWG site plan. I want to alter the contours now that we've put in an addition. The problem is, there are waaaaaay too many mesh points to go through and change manually. I only want to change a small portion of the mesh, so I don't want the option of changing all the points on a specific mesh line.

Can I split a mesh line? Let me know if my description sounds confusing and you need some further clarification...

[Anonymous]

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=30498&highlight=mesh

Found a very similar post, will try that...

[Anonymous]

Hello Steven,
One way I know of to split a mesh line/contour is to
draw a small rectangle that goes across the contour line
(easiest with the polyline tool), select the mesh, activate
the mesh tool, press the space bar, pass the cursor inside
the small rectangle and click. A dialog box comes up asking
to add points or create hole, select create hole. Now delete
the polyline rectangle. You now can see the hole that is
interrupting the contour. Deselect the mesh, activate the
arrow tool and select the hole by selecting one of it's edges
and drag it away from the contour and then delete the hole.
This leaves two contours where there was one continuous one.

I just did some experiments with a mesh in AC 10 and discovered
some problems with the method I describe above including crashing
Archicad, destroying the mesh, or nothing appearing in 3D.
These problems did not occur in earlier versions and may
have been fixed in versions after AC 10 so be very careful !!!
Peter Devlin

[Anonymous]

What I do is keep the splines/polylines I used to make the contours. When I need to make a change I adjust the spline then delete and remake the contour.

[Anonymous]

Hello Steven,
I did some more experiments and found that in
AC 10 if I drag the hole completely out of the
mesh it works and I do not get Archicad crashing,
destruction of the mesh, or nothing appearing in 3D.
I also tried both methods in AC 12 with no problems
with either way. So maybe it's safe now but be careful
and keep checking the 3D window.
Peter Devlin

[Anonymous]

I think my method is easier and more reliable. For the curious I have posted a quick demo at:

vimeo.com/8708120

[Anonymous]

Hello Matthew,
Of course, I agree. If for some reason the original
splines/polylines are not available, one can always
trace the contour with the polyline tool and delete the
contour and edit the polylines, and if necessary explode
the polyline into lines, edit the lines, then remake the contour.
One caveat is that in AC 10 the trace function does
not work when trying to trace mesh contours.
Hopefully fixed in later versions.
Peter Devlin

[Erika Epstein]

Very nice video Matthew.

[Anonymous]

Matthew wrote:
What I do is keep the splines/polylines I used to make the contours. When I need to make a change I adjust the spline then delete and remake the contour.

Thank you for your tip. It is important to keep the splines/polylines.

[Anonymous]

Matthew & Peter,

Very helpful, thanks a bunch! I do still have the original lines so I think I'll go that route.